Prussian Higher Tribunal

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The Prussian Upper Tribunal was a supreme court in Berlin for Prussia from 1782 to 1879 and was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. A decision of the upper tribunal that is still known today is the Rose-Rosahl case from 1858.

history

Secret Upper Tribunal

The "Secret Upper Tribunal" was created on November 30, 1782. It replaced the Higher Appeal Court in Berlin (1703-1748), which arose as a result of the Prussian Privilegium de non appellando . The upper tribunal was responsible for all of Prussia. As a result of the expansion of the Prussian state territory in the 19th century, local jurisdiction was again restricted and the newly acquired territories had their own auditing bodies . In Prussia there were three different legal circles after 1819 : Prussian, common and French law. This fragmentation resulted in four supreme courts operating. With the Congress of Vienna in 1815, areas were added that had the Cinq codes from the Napoleonic occupation. The Rhenish Auditing and Cassation Court was responsible for these areas under French law, which roughly encompassed the Rhine Province . In New Western Pomerania , the Higher Appeal Court in Greifswald ruled as a court of appeal under common law that previously applied in Swedish Pomerania . The province of Poznan had its own revision instance in the 2nd Senate of the Higher Appeal Court in Poznan since 1817 . The revision court in Berlin was responsible for the public area of ​​the right bank of the Rhine part of the administrative district of Koblenz . The Chamber Court and the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt were the last instance from 1803 to 1826. After 1834, the Court of Appeal remained in the final instance when it ruled in its capacity as a Privy Councilor . The revision in political criminal trials against the Democrats was from the pre-March period associated with the Superior Court the Privy Council of Justice. In 1833, revisions could no longer be delegated to higher regional courts. In 1834 the revision senate in Poznan was dissolved. Since 1843 three members of the higher court were also members of the higher tribunal. The presidents of the high tribunal were directly responsible to the king until 1857 and were subordinate to the Ministry of Justice.

High Tribunal

After the March Revolution of 1848, the Prussian National Assembly called for the unification of the highest courts of justice in Art. 88 of the Waldeck Charter . The motive was “ the desirable goal of unity in the forms of administration of justice. “Against the resistance of Rhenish lawyers, the provisions in Articles 91 and 92 of the imposed constitutions of 1848/1850 were upheld. With the ordinance of January 1849, the higher tribunal replaced the Greifswald Higher Appeal Court as a revision instance. The Prussian constitution of 1850 had far-reaching consequences for the organization of the courts. With the law of March 1852, only one supreme court was set up for all of Prussia, the higher tribunal. The higher regional courts under the name Appellationsgerichte were added to the upper tribunal as the intermediate instance. On January 1, 1853, the Upper Tribunal was renamed the Upper Tribunal in order to take account of the new principle of publicity in court hearings. With the incorporation of the southern German Hohenzollern Lands in 1850, the jurisdiction of the upper tribunal was expanded in 1851. In 1852 an independent attorney general was added with a attorney general and three senior attorneys. A well-known decision by the upper tribunal, which is still relevant today, concerns the so-called Rose-Rosahl case from 1858.

In 1867 a second supreme court was created again. As a result of the annexations in 1866, the higher tribunal was responsible for revisions from the city of Frankfurt am Main. The Higher Appeal Court of Berlin was formed in 1867 for the new Prussian provinces of Schleswig-Holstein , Hanover , Hesse-Nassau and the Duchy of Lauenburg and also for the principalities of Waldeck and Pyrmont . In 1874 the courts were united.

resolution

With the establishment of the Reich Higher Commercial Court in Leipzig in 1869, the Upper Tribunal handed over the commercial and bill of exchange matters to it. In 1879, the Imperial Court in Leipzig replaced the Prussian Higher Tribunal as the final instance. The court was overturned. 25 judges from the upper tribunal were appointed to the Reichsgericht. 19 judges retired.

structure

In 1874 the High Tribunal had eight Senates headed by a President, five Vice Presidents and 62 High Tribunal Councilors. One Senate dealt with personal law , two Senates dealt with property law , one Senate dealt with the Code of Obligations , and two Senates dealt with civil law matters from the area of Rhenish law and the areas that the Higher Appeal Court had dealt with until 1874. There was a senate for criminal matters and a senate for disciplinary matters. Disputes between the Senates were resolved by a plenum that united all Senates.

Chief President or (from 1850) First President

Other well-known members

Literature (selection)

  • Wiebke Mund: The Prussian divorce law in the judicature of the Berlin Upper Tribunal from 1835 to 1879, Frankfurt a. M. [et al.] 2008.
  • Simone Leona Schmüser: The application of the provisions of the general land law for the Prussian states on the marital community of property in the practice of the royal (secret) upper tribunal in the period from 1837 to 1879, Frankfurt a. M. [et al.] 2007.
  • High Tribunal . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 14, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p.  874 .
  • Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Starke: Presentation of the existing court system in the Prussian state, Berlin 1839, p. 145ff. .

Decision collections

  • Seligo / Kuhlmeyer / Wilke I. (Eds.): The prejudices of the Secret Higher Tribunal (in Berlin) since its introduction in 1832 until the end of 1848, arranged according to the paragraph sequence of the law books and provided with an alphabetical subject index, Berlin 1849 ( BSB digitized ; Google eBook ).
  • Obertribunals-Rechtsanwälte (Ed.):
    • Archive for legal cases from the practice of the lawyers of the Royal Higher Tribunal, Berlin 1856–1857, 22 volumes (volumes 1 to 22 as digitalized BSB) and the successors
    • Archive for legal cases that have come to the decision of the Royal Higher Tribunal, Berlin 1857–1879, 100 volumes (volumes 23 to 32 as digitalised BSB).
  • Striethorst: Archive for legal cases from the practice of the upper tribunal, Berlin 1851-1880.
  • Hugo Rehbein : The decisions of the former Prussian upper tribunal, Berlin 1884–95, 4 volumes.
  • Friedrich Oppenhoff : Jurisprudence of the High Tribunal in Criminal Matters, Berlin 1861–1879, 20 volumes.

Wikisource

Wikisource: Prussian Upper Tribunal - Rose / Rosahl  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Law on the establishment of the Federal or Reich Higher Commercial Court of June 12, 1869  - sources and full texts
Wikisource: Ordinance concerning the transfer of Prussian legal cases to the Reichsgericht from September 26, 1879  - sources and full texts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum , Part 2, Abth. 4 No. I. .
  2. ^ Collection of Laws for the Royal Prussian States , Berlin 1826, p. 53 (No. 1011).
  3. ^ Collection of laws for the Royal Prussian States , Berlin 1834, p. 77 (No. 1529).
  4. ^ Motifs for the draft constitution of the Constitutional Commission of the Prussian Constituent National Assembly of July 26, 1848.
  5. ↑ PrGS 1852 p. 73
  6. ↑ PrGS 1867 p. 1103
  7. ↑ PrGS 1874 p. 19